Personnel shelter

ABSTRACT

A personnel shelter is defined by a canopy and end walls of transparent lightweight flexible material which are removably attached to a bench. Heating and cooling, and air circulating devices are incorporated with the personnel shelter for conditioning the air within the shelter.

lJitd States atent [1 1 Reed et a1.

[ PERSONNEL SHELTER [75] Inventors: David S. Reed, Huntington, W. Va.;

John E. Cottrill, South Point, Ohio [73] Assignee: Pr0tect-O-D0me,1nc.,Huntington,

W. Va.

[22] Filed: Apr. 17, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 352,038

Related U.S. Application Data [60] Division of Ser. No. 104,449, Jan. 6,1971, Pat. No. 3,745,305, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No.80,449, Oct. 13, 1970, abandoned.

[52] U.S. Cl. 165/47, 297/180 [51] Int. Cl F281 7/00 [58] Field ofSearch 165/46, 47, 48, 39, 40;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,131,967 5/1964 Spaulding297/180 1451 Jan.7,]1975 3,295,886 1/1967 Goldmerstein 297/180 3,444,9225/1969 Dingman 165/46 3,745,305 7/1973 Reed 219/217 PrimaryExaminer-Charles Sukalo Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Cushman, Darby &Cushman [57] ABSTRACT A personnel shelter is defined by a canopy and endwalls of transparent lightweight flexible material which are removablyattached to a bench. Heating and cooling, and air circulating devicesare incorporated with the personnel shelter for conditioning the airwithin the shelter.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures P ATENTED JAN H975 SHEET 10F 4 PATENTED JAN7 I975 SHEET 3 OF d PATENTEB JAN 7 I975 SHEET u, OF A H T I F I'T F'T WPERSONNEL SHELTER This is a division of application Ser. No. 104,449,filed Jan. 6, 1971, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,305, granted July 10, 1973,which is a continuation-impart ofapplication Ser. No. 80,449, filed Oct.13, 1970, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention pertains to personnelshelters and specifically to shelters designed to offer a maximumprotection against the elements while maintaining a maximum visualcontact with the environment.

Protection against hot, cold and inclement weather has been one ofmankinds most constant pursuits throughout history. Nevertheless, incertain areas this battle against the elements has yet to be won. Forinstance football players ordinarily sit on open benches completelyexposed to elements which imposes great hardship upon the players duringvery hot, cold or inclement weather. Furthermore, besides the primarydiscomfort involved in being cold and/or wet there is also an increaseddanger ofinjury when unthawed muscles are plunged into the heat ofcompetitive sports or when overheated athletes cannot be properly cooledfollowing strenuous exercise.

There have, of course, been previous attempts to shelter footballplayers from the elements. The method of providing dugouts under thestands has not proved convenient because the extra players on the benchneed to be located nearer the field for quick substitution. For the samereason the shelter should be so constructed that large groups of peoplecan quickly enter and leave the sheltered area and thus completelyenclosed shelters, even if located adjacent to the playing field areimpractical.

For the foregoing reasons the most promising shelter for footballplayers developed by the prior art was a canopy which covers the bencharea and defines a sheltered area which opens upon the football field.Even this solution, however, was disadvantageous from both the playersand the fans point of view. While the canopy provided some shelter fromthe elements it did not contain any heating or cooling means and sinceit was open it provided no protection against the cold or the extremeheat produced by an artificial turf. In addition, the canopies adoptedby the prior art interfered with the fans view of the playing field andkept him from observing his favorite players and coach while they satupon the bench. In addition, the prior art shelters were disadvantageousfrom the point of view of the playing field maintenance crew since theyhad to be assembled piece-by-piece at the bench site.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore one object of this invention toprovide a personnel shelter with a transparent canopy. It is anotherobject of this invention to provide personnel shelter which has heating,and cooling means attached thereto. It is yet another object of thisinvention to provide a personnel shelter which can be moved as a unit orcompletely disassembled. It is a further object of this invention toprovide a personnel shelter including a canopy cooler and heater both ofwhich are removably attached to a bench that the bench can function asan open bench during fine weather.

The above and other objects will be accomplished by the applicantsinvention which, simply stated, comprises a personnel shelter having atransparent canopy removably attached to a bench and curving above thebench to provide, in conjunction with end walls, a sheltered area aboutthe bench and heaters and cooling means removably attached to the benchfor warming, or cooling, especially the feet and lower back portions ofpeople sitting upon the bench.

While most of the foregoing comments were directed to a shelterspecifically designed to protect football players from the elements, itshould be obvious that a shelter for this purpose would also have greatutility in other areas. For instance, a shelter which would overcome thedifficulties mentioned above could provide temporary relief from theelements for construction workers, commuters, skiers or anyone else whohas been induced by business or pleasure to spend time outdoors duringvery hot, cold and/or inclement weather. In particular, a shelter inaccord with applicants invention would be a boon to those who commuteduring dark hours since they could see through the shelters canopy andthus spot suspicious persons lurking thereabout.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective view of apersonnel shelter according to applicants invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the personnel shelter shown in FIG. ll showingparticularly the placement of the heaters;

FIG. 3 is a partial view of the end of the personnel shelter from theperspective of one standing behind the bench;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are details of FIG. 1 showing how the canopy sections arefastened to the channels;

FIG. 6 is a side view of the personnel shelter similar to FIG. 2 showingparticularly the placement of the blower means; and

FIG. 7 is a side view of the personnel shelter similar to FIG. 2 showingparticularly placement of the mechanical cooling means.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1, referencenumeral 1 indicates generally the personnel shelter in accordance withapplicants invention, while reference numeral 2 indicates generally thebench portion of the personnel shelter. The bench, in turn, is comprisedof a forward support portion 3, a seating portion 4, and a raised backportion 5. The bench is protected by a canopy indicated generally byreference numeral 6 and end walls 7 and 7'. The end walls and bench restupon platform 8 which is raised above the ground by runners 9. Inaddition the forward support portion 3 of bench 2 is attached toplatform 8 by removable fasteners 10 and the end walls 7 and 7' aresimilarly attached to the platform by removable fasteners 11 and 11'.

As is best shown in FIG. 3, the forward support portion, the seatingportion, and raised back portion of the bench are manufactured togetherin a single form of I molded plastic. The seating area is corrugated forstrength and to provide a surface which is easier to keep dry duringinclement weather. While any plastic having appropriate mechanicalproperties may be utilized in molding the bench seat, a textured sheetof Noryl plastic /1" thickness has proved satisfactory. A

removable panel 12 which may also be of textured Noryl sheet completesthe bench unit.

FIG. 2 shows that the bench seat is braced by the strap steel brackets13. In addition, the seat is braced by metallic tubes 14 best shown inFIG. 3 which extend from the platform to the upper surface of the raisedback portion. FIG. 3 shows that metallic tubes 14 are properly sized andspaced to receive the ends of channels 15 while FIG. 1 shows thatchannels 15 and sections 16 of a transparent, lightweight and flexiblematerial together comprise canopy 6. While any material with suitablemechanical and optical properties may be used for the transparentsections and end walls, it has been found that cold-formed Lexan hasexcellent optical clarity as well as toughness.

FIG. 4 in which the left side faces the sheltered area, shows how thetransparent section 16 is attached to channels 15 by adjusting screws 17and washer strip 18. FIG. shows how transparent section 16 is attachedto the left channels by washer strip 19 and adjusting screw 20. Inaddition, this figure also shows adjusting screw 21 and washer 22 whichfasten end wall 7 to channel 15.

FIG. 2 best demonstrates the positioning of top heater 23 and bottomheater 24. Both of these heaters are removably attached to bench 2 byone-way fasteners 25 which allow the heaters to be removed from insidethe bench once the removable panel 12 has been removed. FIG. 2 showsthat the radiation of top heater 23 has its greatest effect on the lowerback of a person seated upon seating portion 4 while bottom heater 24 isdirected towards the feet of a seated person.

The combined effect of these heaters 23 and 24 produces a most completewarming effect on the seated person because heater 24 directly warms thefeet while heater 23 warms the lower back of a seated person, the mostcritical portion of the body for heating purposes, as well as thepersons hands which are normally at the seat level.

The heaters may take any form which is thermally suitable. However,electrically powered infra-red heaters have been found desirable forthis use. The temperature of the heaters is adjusted through the upperdial of conventional heater controls 26 and other known circuitry whichis not shown.

When it is desired to use the personnel shelter in a warm environment,the fan motor 27 shown in FIG. 6 is energized by depressing the lowerbutton shown in temperature control 26. The fan motor causes theconventional fan 23 to draw air in through inlet in bottom panel 12 andto discharge air through the evaporator sheet 30 into manifold 31. Theevaporator sheet 30 is supported in the water tank 32 and thus the waterlost by evaporation is continually replenished.

The air cooled by pressing through the evaporator sheet into themanifold 31 is led through ducts 33, 34 and 35 to channels 36, 37 and38, respectively. The channels are disposed parallel to the top andbottom of the raised back portion 5 of the bench and the forward supportportion, respectively, and these channels communicate with the shelteredarea through pairs of vents 39, 40 and 41, respectively.

At certain times it is desirable to cool but not to chill personnelcoming to the shelter area from a very hot area adjacent thereto. Inthis case, the evaporator sheet 30 may be removed and the fan 28connected directly to the manifold 31. The personnel seated upon thebench will then be subjected to air at essentially ambient temperatureswhich aids their normal bodily evaporative process to gradually coolthem.

It may also be desirable to cool the sheltered area more than ispossible with the evaporator described above. In this case, as shown inFIG. 7, the fan 28 and evaporator sheet 30 can be replaced by aconventional air refrigeration unit 42 which can be connected by thesame ducts as above to the sheltered area and can be operated as the fanwas by temperature control 26.

Both of the above described cooling devices may logically be placed atthe longitudinal center of the bench 50, as to minimize interferencewith the heaters. In an alternate embodiment, however, the heater unitsmay be removed and replaced by channel units 43 and 44. In this event,of course, the channels 37 and 38 and the pairs of vents 40 and 41 couldbe dispersed with.

The overall dimensions of the personnel shelter are, of course, variablewithin the scope of the applicants invention. Nevertheless, certaindesign criteria should be followed, for instance, platform 8 shouldextend far enough in front of bench 2 to allow a person to stand up,and, of course, the canopy should also cover this portion of theplatform. In addition, the curvature of the canopy should be such thatthe seated individual can rise from a sitting to a standing positionwithout coming into contact with the canopy. As to the length of thepersonnel shelter there are many possibilities. The shelter can be madelong enough to seat an entire football team (one hundred feet of fiftypersons) whence it would probably be moved into place by a tractor, orthe personnel shelter may be built in modules which are narrow enough(twelve feet or six persons) to be maneuvered by a forklift truck whoseprongs would extend under the raised platform 8 substantially parallelto the runners 9. If module type personnel shelters were used, anynumber of persons could, of course, be seated by manipulation of thenumber of modules. The module embodiment would also be advantageouswhere the shelter is used by small groups of people such as commuters onmass transportation or the other groups discussed above.

The height of the platform above the ground is not critical as long asthe platform is raised from the ground enough to provide a surface whichis easy to keep clean.

It should be apparent that since the canopy, end walls, and heaters andcooling equipment, are all removably fastened to the bench these itemscan be removed if it is desired to use the bench as a simple open benchduring fine weather.

What is claimed is:

l. A personnel shelter comprising a bench having a forward supportportion, a seating portion and a raised back portion, a canopy extendingupward from the upper surface of said raised back portion and curvingabove said bench, means for securing said canopy to said bench, a wallpositioned at each end of said bench having one edge shaped to make aflush joint with said canopy and means attached to said bench forconditioning the air within the area defined by said canopy and said endwalls, said means for conditioning the air including a fan and ductmeans communicating the output from said fan with said defined area forcirculating the air within said sheltered area.

2. The personnel shelter of claim I further including an evaporatorsheet disposed between said fan and said said bench.

4. The personnel shelter of claim 1 wherein said means for conditioningthe air comprises an air refrigeration unit and duct means communicatingthe output of said refrigeration unit with said sheltered area forcirculating cool air within said area.

1. A personnel shelter comprising a bench having a forward supportportion, a seating portion and a raised back portion, a canopy extendingupward from the upper surface of said raised back portion and curvingabove said bench, means for securing said canopy to said bench, a wallpositioned at each end of said bench having one edge shaped to make aflush joint with said canopy and means attached to said bench forconditioning the air within the area defined by said canopy and said endwalls, said means for conditioning the air including a fan and ductmeans communicating the output from said fan with said defined area forcirculating the air within said sheltered area.
 2. The personnel shelterof claim 1 further including an evaporator sheet disposed between saidfan and said duct means for cooling air before it is circulated withinsaid sheltered area.
 3. The personnel shelter of claim 1 wherein saidduct means includes three ducts, one disposed along the top of saidraised back portion of said bench, a second disposed along the bottom ofsaid raised back portion and a third disposed along said forward supportportion of said bench.
 4. The personnel shelter of claim 1 wherein saidmeans for conditioning the air comprises an air refrigeration unit andduct means communicating the output of said refrigeration unit with saidsheltered area for circulating cool air within said area.